Leave your box and reach your POTENTIAL

When I was 14

When I was 14 years old I was told I needed to decide what my career was going to be. I was excited and set my mind free. I went to my teacher and said I want to become a dancer. She looked at me and laughed. “Laurens you can’t dance, you’re white.” So I went home and wrote down other ideas of what I wanted to be. I looked at the pen while writing and thought, why not become a writer? A writer of fictional stories that become movies and take people on a journey through their imagination. Again I told my teacher and she said, “Only the best make it, you won’t be good enough.”

They asked me what it is I want to be and then preceded to tell me what I couldn’t be. Eventually my teacher arranged for a psychologist to give me advice. She administered a test with me and told me I can do one of three things, be an accountant, an engineer or a computer programmer. All of a sudden the scope of possibility of my life went from anything, to one of 3 things. When you are 14 every adult is a genius and a test wouldn’t lie, right?

I went home and told my parents. They were so excited and proud. Their clever maths boy, they said, but what about my other side. My creative imagination. The fact that I can entertain myself for hours alone just creating new worlds in my mind. They boxed me into an analytical profile.

I studied computer science and I was good. I mean, I was average in a class full of analytical people. I then went to work and again I was good. Until the box no longer fitted. I felt angry, used and unfulfilled. I began to sabotage my work situation.

Until 10 months ago, my life changed to a point of no return. I was retrenched. I didn’t know it then, but life was moving on ME, because I didn’t take the step. I am proud to say that I haven’t returned back to the box, because the box is too small. It’s got everyone else in it, and we don’t belong there.

I’m now the proud author of 3 books with other 2 almost done and another 10 ideas brewing. I don’t say this to impress you, but rather to impress upon you that just because someone sees a life for you doesn’t mean that is the only one worth living.

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Every week I share thoughts on personal growth based on experiences I myself go through and the people I meet. Please subscribe, engage and share your personal journey with me too as we push to keep changing the game.